AN NCS PREMIERE: SEPTORY — “SWAMP”

Jul 172023

The Russian death metal band Septory came together in Saint Petersburg in 2005. They released albums in 2008 and 2011, plus a split with Finland’s Sadistik Forest in 2013, and then a long silence descended. But now, a decade later, Septory is releasing a compilation that spans the long bridge between their first recordings and new works in 2023.

Entitled Rotting Humanity, it’s set for co-release on August 17th by Satanath Records (Georgia) and Heretic Rex (Russia). A six-track collection, it consists of the previously unreleased 2006 EP Rotting Humanity (which includes the title track and a cover of Deicide‘s “Sacrificial Suicide”); a demo from 2007 (“Madness“); a completely re-recorded song from the 2008 album World War Chaos (“Swamp”); a new recording of a cover of Benediction‘s “The Grotesque”; and a new intro track named “Dies Irae”.

For the new recordings, Deiron (guitars, bass, vocals) was joined by guest musicians Dym Nox (Pyre, Blazing Rust, Drama) on drums, and Devourer (Warder, Sudden Rage, Rotten Coffin, Apostate) on vocals, and the compilation is adorned by the cover art of Rotten Phantom.

What we have for you today is the premiere of that re-recorded song “Swamp” from Septory‘s World War Chaos album.

Before listening to the re-recorded version, we gave a listen to the original version of “Swamp“, and discovered that it’s a powerhouse rampage that the song’s name didn’t prepare us for, an absolutely vicious and bludgeoning assault. but also technically impressive, and despite its brazen ferocity the band also worked in threads of melody (and a gripping solo) that gave the music a dire and distressing emotional impact in addition to its big dose of raw adrenaline.

The new version recorded earlier this year that you’re about to hear preserves all those qualities, but if anything it might be even more bone-rattling and head-spinning. The fretwork is fast but it writhes and warps as well as frenetically jitters and darts, channeling derangement and ecstasy as well as predatory malignancy, and the band break it up with pulse-punching riff-bursts, hard-slugging grooves, and crazed convulsions. The guttural vocals are again monstrous, and the soloing is again riveting.

The song thus manages to deliver old-school murder with new-school aplomb, and a sound that finds a sweet spot between clarity and filth.